It’s hard to articulate, but it’s that classing of a worthy foe or something. Like people say “say what you will about x but he does y good” (something said by someone about Rommel by Patton (at least in his movie))in a way that’s meant to sound begrudging but just makes them sound like they want to be them if you get me
Witness it once in a blue moon
I think it stems from the civility nonsense. The idea of ‘‘bipartisanship’’, where 2 parties ‘‘agree to disagree’’ but we all know that they work hand in glove, and that is what must be preserved overall, the continuity of liberal democracy.